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Can you head down to the warehouse and restack some pallets so they start shipping out the ACG to recipients that start with W first? ;D

Paizo Employee Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)

Mark Seifter wrote:
I had a great table that made The Blakros Matrimony by Thurston Hillman a highlight...

Ok, I like you. You can stay :D


Ah! Mark has the blessing of Lord Balls-for-Chin! Huzzah!


If you had the opportunity --- wait, let me start over.

If you had the time to make a class of your choice, what would it be? Would it be based on any popular depictions?

cheese don't count.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm interested in allowing gunslingers into my campaigns but have heard too many unbalancing things about them. Would you be willing to share that toolbox of yours? Or is that too close to 'free work'?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Hey Mark, how often is in-combat healing a thing at the tables you've played at? (Specifically of Pathfinder; dunno what your experience with past systems might be.)

Designer

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Cheapy wrote:

If you had the opportunity --- wait, let me start over.

If you had the time to make a class of your choice, what would it be? Would it be based on any popular depictions?

cheese don't count.

Well, I'm already pretty happy with the Masquerade Reveler, despite it being an "archetype", but as to what other classes I might design--only time will tell, hmm? ;)

Designer

Seannoss wrote:
I'm interested in allowing gunslingers into my campaigns but have heard too many unbalancing things about them. Would you be willing to share that toolbox of yours? Or is that too close to 'free work'?

The reason it's a toolbox is that I'm still not sure which tool from the box is the right one for the job. Banning the pistolero and musket master archetypes and making it so double-barreled weapons work that way some people used to think they worked where they only give the two shots when you take a standard "attack" action are a good beginning for any conversation.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Cheapy wrote:

If you had the opportunity --- wait, let me start over.

If you had the time to make a class of your choice, what would it be? Would it be based on any popular depictions?

cheese don't count.

Well, I'm already pretty happy with the Masquerade Reveler, despite it being an "archetype", but as to what other classes I might design--only time will tell, hmm? ;)

*clawprint of approval*

Designer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Jiggy wrote:
Hey Mark, how often is in-combat healing a thing at the tables you've played at? (Specifically of Pathfinder; dunno what your experience with past systems might be.)

It depends. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but sometimes it's impossible to have the prevention, and then it's really great to have that pound of cure. In PFS, often due to tactics or the habits of the NPCs, the setups for scenarios are easy enough to roflstomp them with an optimized team, and then you don't need healing. In PFS, healing becomes most important when you are batting out of your pay grade, such as Hard Modes or Bonekeep, or when you are faced with unavoidable area damage (seriously, I know that "never heal in combat because if you do, you are stupid and should feel bad" is this viral meme, but it leads me to scratch my head when I see a review for a scenario that goes like "We kept taking steady area damage that we couldn't avoid with our defenses. After several rounds, we all died or retreated. This is BS--there's nothing any party could possibly do to counter slow but steady area damage. 1 Star!"

In home games, where some of the enemies might be coming in from elsewhere on their turn, use smart misdirection strategies to avoid being one-shotted or focused, or other things like that, I see in-combat healing all the time. Clearly, casting a cure light wounds in battle is almost always a waste of a turn, but a well-built channel energy, lay on hands, or particularly a well-timed heal spell (<3 readied action reach heal) is generally important if the opposition is putting up much of a fight. This is particularly true in well-balanced opposition for a large game (6+), since a damage-based climactic encounter that can't take out the least-defended of a large crew in a fair fight when focus-firing (barring healing and protection measures taken mid-fight to prevent it) before losing generally wasn't even close to being a threat to the PCs as a whole. Even our highly-unfair Kingmaker party that hasn't met a boss fight we couldn't ambush needs a heal spell or 2 in a big fight.

Useful in-combat healing is about one of two things--tempo, or preservation. For tempo, there's the obvious tempo-booster (more than one ally will likely drop from next AoE even if they save for half, but double channel means they are certain to last it, so you trade one of your turns for more than one turn), but there's also the subtler tempo-shifter, which can be understood more easily with an analogy from a simpler game, Fire Emblem. When I was younger and I got my first Fire Emblem unit that had the ability where it couldn't attack, but it could spend its turn to make another character get another turn, I didn't realize at first how ridiculous that was. It turned out to be the most powerful unit in the game, since it could cause the best character for the situation to go again. Similarly, a support character that can keep the most powerful character in a given fight up for one turn with one heal has improved tempo unless the support character's other move was better than the low hp character's.

For preservation, let's assume someone is going to drop and they don't have a better move than your non-healing move. If healing them can't keep them standing for multiple additional rounds (heal sometimes can, but most other healing won't), you don't have tempo. But you do have preservation to consider--much like in Fire Emblem as opposed to chess, the pieces on the board mean something to you, and "winning" more quickly while losing more pieces is worse than a slower win where you keep them all alive, assuming you were sure you would prevail either way.

Obviously, if nobody ever is in danger of dropping negative, then neither of these comes into play, and in-combat healing is foolish at those times.

Designer

Eranex the Runemasked wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Cheapy wrote:

If you had the opportunity --- wait, let me start over.

If you had the time to make a class of your choice, what would it be? Would it be based on any popular depictions?

cheese don't count.

Well, I'm already pretty happy with the Masquerade Reveler, despite it being an "archetype", but as to what other classes I might design--only time will tell, hmm? ;)
*clawprint of approval*

Oh man, did you give Eranex any masks with the evos from Secrets, or had she already played her part by then?


She's still in the story - she's the party's ally and representative in the local "game" of draconic conquest in my group's homebrew setting - but she hasn't come back into a prominent position yet as far as the plot goes.

She'll be more active again soon though!:
Instead of Irovetti as the villain of Chapter Five, my group will be facing down with Cuorvhain the Conqueror, a rather nasty blue dragon and local dragon-lord.
I'll need to revamp her a bit using Secrets sometime soonish, I haven't touched her statblock since I originally built her, almost a year ago now.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Mark Seifter wrote:
I know that "never heal in combat because if you do, you are stupid and should feel bad" is this viral meme

First, I have to say I'm a little disappointed that you subscribe to this caricaturization of the people who treat in-combat healing as a backup option for exceptional circumstances, based on a tiny handful of "extremists".

That aside, yes, I agree with you on what types of situations merit some in-combat healing; my own cleric keeps a heal chambered (to say nothing of spontaneous cures) for exactly those reasons. (I keep meaning to have my other PCs get their emergency CSW potions in oil form for the same reason, but always forget!)

What I was asking was not so much "Under what circumstances?" but rather "How often?"

Those tough fights where you really need that AoE healing to counter fireball spam ("spamball"? *begins brewing new concept*) or when only one character is effective against the enemy and therefore keeping them fit is everyone's best chance... how often do they come up, in your experience? Every fight? One per session? Climactic end-of-plot-arc-or-sub-arc battle? Some other frequency?

Also, as a follow-up question: your comments seem to focus mostly on heal and on multiple-feats-worth-of-investment Channels. How important do you think it is for a party (whether PFS, AP, whatever) to have a character capable of that?

Designer

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Jiggy wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
I know that "never heal in combat because if you do, you are stupid and should feel bad" is this viral meme

First, I have to say I'm a little disappointed that you subscribe to this caricaturization of the people who treat in-combat healing as a backup option for exceptional circumstances.

That aside, yes, I agree with you on what types of situations merit some in-combat healing; my own cleric keeps a heal chambered (to say nothing of spontaneous cures) for exactly those reasons. (I keep meaning to have my other PCs get their emergency CSW potions in oil form for the same reason, but always forget!)

What I was asking was not so much "Under what circumstances?" but rather "How often?"

Those tough fights where you really need that AoE healing to counter fireball spam ("spamball"? *begins brewing new concept*) or when only one character is effective against the enemy and therefore keeping them fit is everyone's best chance... how often do they come up, in your experience? Every fight? One per session? Climactic end-of-plot-arc-or-sub-arc battle? Some other frequency?

Also, as a follow-up question: your comments seem to focus mostly on heal and on multiple-feats-worth-of-investment Channels. How important do you think it is for a party (whether PFS, AP, whatever) to have a character capable of that?

I myself treat it as a backup option, much like you (I've simply played in more home games I think). However, there is a further position that exists that quite literally berates people for using it and tells them that their group is bad at Pathfinder or they would never need it. It isn't a strawman, it's a real position. This is not your position, and I am not attempting to paint your position as being equivalent to that one, as there are a number of positions out there. It's of critical importance to my philosophy on the forums not to lump any groups together when there are many nuanced positions on the topic. That way leads to unnecessary confusion and anger, as people consider themselves more distant than they actually are on viewpoint and entrench themselves against each other.

That said, I think you will find that the number of people who hold the extreme position here is rather high, but for an interesting potential reason (or at least I have a pet theory)--I think it's possible that this extreme opinion's prevalence developed the extreme position by mislearning from the (good) advice of people who don't hold the extreme position but who caution against meaningless healing.


Mark Seifter wrote:
It isn't a strawman, it's a real position.

I can second this, I've seen quite a few posts saying blatantly "If you need to heal in combat, you're doing something wrong".

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Okay, didn't realize I was gonna start a derail by not wanting the moderates lumped in with the extremists.

So anyway, what about my actual question? How often do you see in-combat healing needing to be used? Once per combat? More? Less?

Designer

Jiggy wrote:

What I was asking was not so much "Under what circumstances?" but rather "How often?"

Those tough fights where you really need that AoE healing to counter fireball spam ("spamball"? *begins brewing new concept*) or when only one character is effective against the enemy and therefore keeping them fit is everyone's best chance... how often do they come up, in your experience? Every fight? One per session? Climactic end-of-plot-arc-or-sub-arc battle? Some other frequency?

Also, as a follow-up question: your comments seem to focus mostly on heal and on multiple-feats-worth-of-investment Channels. How important do you think it is for a party (whether PFS, AP, whatever) to have a character capable of that?

How often? Depends on the game. If the GM is highly tactical and running a home game (I count home games of APs for this, which have been pretty much all my PFRPG home games as opposed to 3.5 homegames that weren't APs), the situations I described above are likely to come up at least once in a good number of non-mook encounters and in almost every boss fight. In PFS, it's rare outside of hard mode or the occasional bad match-up of team vs foes.

As to channels--you can be a highly serviceable back-up channeler with just Fast Channel, although it's nice to not heal the enemies when they aren't undead. I think the craziest healer I've ever seen was an Undead Lord who got most of her healing punch from her class features anyway, even before feats (that game was a study in subtlety, as it was full of powerful builds, but the death toll dropped dramatically when they picked up that healing Undead Lord and a ridiculously-useful non-early-entry Mystic Theurge, both of which [healer and theurge] are routinely underestimated).

Designer

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Jiggy wrote:

Okay, didn't realize I was gonna start a derail by not wanting the moderates lumped in with the extremists.

So anyway, what about my actual question? How often do you see in-combat healing needing to be used? Once per combat? More? Less?

I don't think it's a derail--I am grateful to you for your post! You did me a service because if one moderate (you) thought I was talking about moderates while reading this, then silent non-commenting moderates probably did too, and I am grateful to be able to clarify.

Shadow Lodge

TriOmegaZero wrote:
Pretty much my experience yeah. Looking forward to my next run of it where I get a little more creative. :)

Many Fortunes! My review of this one is certainly dragging its average rating up, but I'm a big fan of sandboxes and this scenario can be run as one big sandbox, which means there's a lot of hours available for a GM and the players to get creative and go off the rails. My table did so much off the printed path, it ended up as being one of their most memorable PFS scenarios out of over 100 scenarios and still has the stories from that scenario told to this day.

A couple things happened to bring up the encounter difficulty too, mostly via the casting of spells at the "worst" (aka "best") possible time.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
wakedown wrote:
A couple things happened to bring up the encounter difficulty too, mostly via the casting of spells at the "worst" (aka "best") possible time.

Oh man, sucks to be them! :) Can you believe I had a party of 4 melee guys, a gunslinger, and a cleric? They were pretty lucky!

I really want to run the 6-7 tier however, just for the HSQ...


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

How does a familiar's actions combine with their masters? Do they each get full rounds? For example: master moves and also casts a touch spell via the familiar, in the same round the familiar moves to deliver the spell. Is that how it 'should' work?

Designer

Seannoss wrote:
How does a familiar's actions combine with their masters? Do they each get full rounds? For example: master moves and also casts a touch spell via the familiar, in the same round the familiar moves to deliver the spell. Is that how it 'should' work?

As long as the familiar is next to the master at the time the master cast the touch spell (also, if the familiar was "riding" on the master's shoulder or something like that for the caster's move, you get into a very sticky situation of GM adjudication, so I'm assuming you don't mean that and that instead it was chilling out nearby.


Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Mark Seifter wrote:
Seannoss wrote:
How does a familiar's actions combine with their masters? Do they each get full rounds? For example: master moves and also casts a touch spell via the familiar, in the same round the familiar moves to deliver the spell. Is that how it 'should' work?
As long as the familiar is next to the master at the time the master cast the touch spell (also, if the familiar was "riding" on the master's shoulder or something like that for the caster's move, you get into a very sticky situation of GM adjudication, so I'm assuming you don't mean that and that instead it was chilling out nearby.

Yes, the familiar was riding along at the time of the casting. It feels odd to get 'two' movements but that could be the advantage to having a familiar.


As you may have noticed there have been one or two threads about Pageant of the Peacock recently. Would you be willing to wade in with an indication of how you think it is supposed to work before we have a bunch of Bards getting annoyed with the variation at Gencon tables?

Designer

Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?

Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.

Designer

Seannoss wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Seannoss wrote:
How does a familiar's actions combine with their masters? Do they each get full rounds? For example: master moves and also casts a touch spell via the familiar, in the same round the familiar moves to deliver the spell. Is that how it 'should' work?
As long as the familiar is next to the master at the time the master cast the touch spell (also, if the familiar was "riding" on the master's shoulder or something like that for the caster's move, you get into a very sticky situation of GM adjudication, so I'm assuming you don't mean that and that instead it was chilling out nearby.
Yes, the familiar was riding along at the time of the casting. It feels odd to get 'two' movements but that could be the advantage to having a familiar.

Even for PFS, this is in a murky nebulous realm that can potentially lead to perpetual motion, so GMs have to make their own ruling. It is one of the many facets I would hope to cover in a FAQ blog some day. This isn't an issue with familiars specifically, though--it's with non-riding riders in general.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.

I really can't take credit for spotting it, someone pointed it out to me. So... Unless you've taken a level of swashbuckler, the only weapon that you can use Slashing Grace and weapon finesse together on is the aldori dueling sword, and swashbucklers can add add dexterity to damage with slashing weapons, but not traditional piercing weapons such as the rapier... That strikes me as a little counter-intuitive.

Quick follow-up question, hope you don't mind:

Does the slashing Grace (longsword) feat allow a user to fight with two weapons, wielding a longsword in each hand, and gain dexterity to damage with both weapons?

Designer

Kudaku wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.

I really can't take credit for spotting it, someone pointed it out to me. So... Unless you've taken a level of swashbuckler, the only weapon that you can use Slashing Grace and weapon finesse together on is the aldori dueling sword, and swashbucklers can add add dexterity to damage with slashing weapons, but not traditional piercing weapons such as the rapier... That strikes me as a little counter-intuitive.

Quick follow-up question, hope you don't mind:

Does the slashing Grace (longsword) feat allow a user to fight with two weapons, wielding a longsword in each hand, and gain dexterity to damage with both weapons?

In general, I think it's best to let the ACG threads run their own course, as most people get used to the new rules and have time to digest them (and actually get their hands on them since it's right now before street date), but that does seem to be the most likely reading to me as well, though it depends on a small quirk of the wording (do remember to take the -4 to attack rolls for using two one-handed weapons).


Mark Seifter wrote:
In general, I think it's best to let the ACG threads run their own course, as most people get used to the new rules and have time to digest them (and actually get their hands on them since it's right now before street date), but that does seem to be the most likely reading to me as well, though it depends on a small quirk of the wording (do remember to take the -4 to attack rolls for using two one-handed weapons).

I was thinking Sawtooth Sabers might be a fun way to sidestep that particular penalty. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about dex to damage combined with TWFing for any class with one level in swashbuckler for Swashbuckler's Finesse - I guess I'll do some play testing and see how it turns out. :)

Silver Crusade

An ACG question. Feel free to disregard if you think this one's inappropriate. I figure that my question here may turn on my misunderstanding of non-ACG rules, so I don't feel so bad posting it. :-P

Hunter wrote:
A hunter may teach her companion hunter’s tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype instead of standard tricks.

This is pretty neat, giving the animal these abilities (though I may be misunderstanding them—I haven't ever played a class with an animal, and haven't looked at the Skirmisher before). Just want to confirm that the per-day uses of the tricks ought to be limited somehow, I assume as the Skirmisher is limited? I'm just looking at all those "as a free action when you make an attack" tricks and imagining Fluffy stacking them up ...

Thanks! :-)

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

What, in your opinion, would the Sarkorian "deity" Sturnovenen the Dragoneagle and his dawn-feathered children look like?

Designer

Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.

@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.

Silver Crusade

Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.

So how would you interpret it?

Designer

Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.
So how would you interpret it?

There's a difference between interpretation and intention, I'm afraid. I'll talk about the ACG more later. I'm afraid it's actually official policy not to wade full throttle into the pre-release question threads triggered by the early PDFs, when many people received information secondhand or possibly missed a line of text in their excitement (not saying that happened here, since there was a cut and paste).

Incidentally, Joe, that's one reason why I'm tabling your question for now, if you don't mind.


In your opinion, do any of the "duplicate a spell from a spell list" functions of the wish spell change the casting time of the duplicated spell? For example, if wish were used to duplicate legend lore, would the information be gained at the end of the 1 standard action (for the wish) or the end of the standard duration for legend lore?

Full disclosure: this interpretation came up in this thread, which has devolved into arguments about whether a wizard can trivially defeat Cthulhu. I don't really care about that debate, but was curious about your opinion on the duration issue.

Silver Crusade

Mark Seifter wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.
So how would you interpret it?
There's a difference between interpretation and intention, I'm afraid. I'll talk about the ACG more later. I'm afraid it's actually official policy not to wade full throttle into the pre-release question threads triggered by the early PDFs, when many people received information secondhand or possibly missed a line of text in their excitement (not saying that happened here, since there was a cut and paste).

Okies, my apologies.

Designer

Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.
So how would you interpret it?
There's a difference between interpretation and intention, I'm afraid. I'll talk about the ACG more later. I'm afraid it's actually official policy not to wade full throttle into the pre-release question threads triggered by the early PDFs, when many people received information secondhand or possibly missed a line of text in their excitement (not saying that happened here, since there was a cut and paste).
Okies, my apologies.

No need to apologize--you wouldn't have known that until I told you. :)

Designer

Wyntr wrote:

In your opinion, do any of the "duplicate a spell from a spell list" functions of the wish spell change the casting time of the duplicated spell? For example, if wish were used to duplicate legend lore, would the information be gained at the end of the 1 standard action (for the wish) or the end of the standard duration for legend lore?

Full disclosure: this interpretation came up in this thread, which has devolved into arguments about whether a wizard can trivially defeat Cthulhu. I don't really care about that debate, but was curious about your opinion on the duration issue.

Given that you presumably made a wish that isn't "I wish to cast legend lore" but more like "I wish to know the secrets of the legendary Fortress of Doom", in this specific instance, I would duplicate the spell vision instead and remove the controversy. For other spells, I believe it does generally remove the casting time, though particularly with miracle since it's free for spells, in a home game I would consider carefully whether it's a good idea to allow the reduction in casting time on a case-by-case basis, and much would depend on the spell's original casting time and spell level. Getting enlarge person as a standard action is a no-brainer, but getting a hypothetical 8th-level cleric spell that takes 1 year to cast with a free miracle wouldn't fly in my home game.

As to a PFS environment? At that point, you're in Seeker play, so that's inherently the path less trod. Nonetheless, if I do ever get a series of FAQ/advice blogs on spells like simulacrum, this kind of thing would be on my list for it (though after some of the others I find more pressing).

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Mark Seifter wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.
So how would you interpret it?
There's a difference between interpretation and intention, I'm afraid. I'll talk about the ACG more later. I'm afraid it's actually official policy not to wade full throttle into the pre-release question threads triggered by the early PDFs, when many people received information secondhand or possibly missed a line of text in their excitement (not saying that happened here, since there was a cut and paste).
Okies, my apologies.
No need to apologize--you wouldn't have known that until I told you.

Okies, my apologies.

Silver Crusade

Mark Seifter wrote:

It's actually official policy not to wade full throttle into the pre-release question threads triggered by the early PDFs, when many people received information secondhand or possibly missed a line of text in their excitement (not saying that happened here, since there was a cut and paste).

Incidentally, Joe, that's one reason why I'm tabling your question for now, if you don't mind.

Not at all. Looking forward to talking everything over post-GenCon!

:-)


Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.

My apologies, I misunderstood your post - I can't change the post you refer to since the timer for changes has closed, but please feel free to edit away the misleading statement.

Designer

Kudaku wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Kudaku wrote:
Slashing Grace (can't provide a link, but it's on p. 156 of the ACG) specifies that you choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword) - does this mean you cannot take Slashing Grace with a light slashing weapon, such as a gladius or a handaxe?
Good eye. This was one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the ACG as well. So if you aren't a swashbuckler, it's less useful.
@Other thread--This being one of the first things I noticed is not to say it was intentional. It had been sent to the printer long ago before I arrived, so of course I can't speak to that.
My apologies, I misunderstood your post - I can't change the post you refer to since the timer for changes has closed, but please feel free to edit away the misleading statement.

No prob, and hey guys, great job agreeing to calm down and move on about Slashing Grace all on your own in that other thread. That's rare on the internet. Our fans rock!

I hope you like Fencing Grace!


andreww wrote:
As you may have noticed there have been one or two threads about Pageant of the Peacock recently. Would you be willing to wade in with an indication of how you think it is supposed to work before we have a bunch of Bards getting annoyed with the variation at Gencon tables?

Hi, any chance of getting a view on this even if its an "I'm not touching this madness with someone else's 10 foot pole"?

Designer

andreww wrote:
andreww wrote:
As you may have noticed there have been one or two threads about Pageant of the Peacock recently. Would you be willing to wade in with an indication of how you think it is supposed to work before we have a bunch of Bards getting annoyed with the variation at Gencon tables?
Hi, any chance of getting a view on this even if its an "I'm not touching this madness with someone else's 10 foot pole"?

Sorry, I wasn't ignoring you there. Ever heard the lightbulb joke for Harvard?

Lightbulb joke wrote:

How many Harvard students does it take to change a lightbulb?

One--he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him

I was sort of using that strategy, I'll say this--I agree with you that it wouldn't be good to have a bunch of variation at Gencon tables, so ask me again on Tuesday if that strategy hasn't worked by then. And if that's the case, I promise to do something. Fair?


What's your best story about using Diplomacy in real life?


Mark Seifter wrote:
andreww wrote:
andreww wrote:
As you may have noticed there have been one or two threads about Pageant of the Peacock recently. Would you be willing to wade in with an indication of how you think it is supposed to work before we have a bunch of Bards getting annoyed with the variation at Gencon tables?
Hi, any chance of getting a view on this even if its an "I'm not touching this madness with someone else's 10 foot pole"?

Sorry, I wasn't ignoring you there. Ever heard the lightbulb joke for Harvard?

Lightbulb joke wrote:

How many Harvard students does it take to change a lightbulb?

One--he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him
I was sort of using that strategy, I'll say this--I agree with you that it wouldn't be good to have a bunch of variation at Gencon tables, so ask me again on Tuesday if that strategy hasn't worked by then. And if that's the case, I promise to do something. Fair?

I am honestly not entirely sure what you mean but I am happy enough to know that it is on the radar.


OK, I have another question in light of the upcoming release of the ACG and some of the spoilers in the product page. Apparently there is a feat in there which gives you the paladins divine grace ability adding your charisma modifier to saves. It requires level 2 divine spells and a domain/mystery class feature. Obviously this will be extremely popular with pretty much every Oracle everywhere and quite possibly a number of Clerics given it is pretty much better than having all three save feats and then some.

However, several Oracle Mysteries also give you the ability to replace the modifier you use for your Reflex save with Charisma. Do these two options stack?

I know there have been some comments elsewhere about not allowing you to add the same stat twice to an ability but this appears to be a very different combination. Once replaces the stat used for a save and then one adds it.

Designer

andreww wrote:

OK, I have another question in light of the upcoming release of the ACG and some of the spoilers in the product page. Apparently there is a feat in there which gives you the paladins divine grace ability adding your charisma modifier to saves. It requires level 2 divine spells and a domain/mystery class feature. Obviously this will be extremely popular with pretty much every Oracle everywhere and quite possibly a number of Clerics given it is pretty much better than having all three save feats and then some.

However, several Oracle Mysteries also give you the ability to replace the modifier you use for your Reflex save with Charisma. Do these two options stack?

I know there have been some comments elsewhere about not allowing you to add the same stat twice to an ability but this appears to be a very different combination. Once replaces the stat used for a save and then one adds it.

This seems to me not to be different than the Fury's Fall + Weapon Finesse situation where one feat adds Dex and the other changes Str to Dex.


Mark Seifter wrote:
This seems to me not to be different than the Fury's Fall + Weapon Finesse situation where one feat adds Dex and the other changes Str to Dex.

In that case is there any chance of this becoming a FAQ? As I understand it at the minute we only have a comment from JJ who stresses that he is not the "rules guy".

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